Seoul: Online shopping sales in South Korea increased by 7.3 percent in July compared to the previous year, driven by higher demand for food delivery services, data showed Tuesday. The value of online shopping transactions reached 25 trillion won (US$18.2 billion) in July, an increase of 1.7 trillion won from the same period last year.

According to Yonhap News Agency, this figure represents the second-largest volume recorded since the current data compiling methodology was adopted in 2017, with the all-time high being 25.5 trillion won in March. The report highlighted that spending on food delivery services rose by 8.9 percent to 3.8 trillion won.

The data also indicated a significant rise in spending on automobiles and related products, which surged by 31.1 percent to 960 billion won, influenced by the popularity of imported cars, such as Tesla. Additionally, spending on food products, including agricultural and fishery goods, increased by 9.3 percent to 4.8 trillion won.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices went up by 6.4 percent from a year earlier, totaling 19.6 trillion won. These mobile transactions accounted for 78 percent of total sales, marking a slight decrease of 0.6 percentage point from the previous year.